American Democracy: The Task Before Us

January 27, 2021 — The past year has been a historic stress test for American democracy. Where do we stand now? What can our tradition of political writings tell us about what lies ahead? New Yorker writer and Columbia University Professor of Journalism Nicholas Lemann, editor of Library of America’s new anthology American Democracy: 21 Historic Answers to 5 Urgent Questions, leads a conversation on the controversies and flashpoints that will shape the future course of our democratic experiment. Featuring Patrick Deneen, author of Why Liberalism Failed and Professor of Political Science and Chair of Constitutional Studies at Notre Dame University; Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne; Nicole Hemmer, author of Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics; and Michele Moody-Adams, Professor of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory at Columbia. Presented in partnership with the Center for American Studies at Columbia University